Saturday, March 12, 2011

Househunting…

It’s that time of year. This morning we saw two pairs of Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) checking out the nest boxes around the field. One pair was checking out boxes near the house. The first box was in the shade so we couldn’t get any pics. Then they flew over to the second box that was in the sun.

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The male sat on a branch above the box while the female sat on the top of the box.

The male.

The female.

It’ll be interesting to see if they chose either of these boxes. The first box is shaded in the morning but gets the afternoon sun. It is in a slightly quieter area although the tractor is parked nearby. The second box gets morning sun but will be shaded in the late afternoon. It is, however, right beside the drive; will the traffic be too disturbing? Time will tell…
Click on an image to view a larger image

Identification resources:
The Cornell Institute of Ornithology: Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis

Related posts:
- The Great 2010 Next Box Clean Out (Part 1)
- The Great Next Box Clean Out (Part 2)
- The Great Next Box Clean Out (Part 3)
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2 comments:

  1. LarryMarch 20, 2011 at 1:45 AM

    Great shots of the Eastern Bluebirds Joan. I'm hoping that you get bluebirds in all of your nest boxes this year!

    Going back and reading your previous post with the flying squirrels (those have to be really cool!), I thought you would enjoy my friend Bet's page on flying squirrels! She has the best Bluebird page on the net, loaded with information on blues.

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  2. JSKMarch 20, 2011 at 2:40 PM

    Thanks! Last year the flying squirrel didn't use a nest box. Three boxes were used the the Eastern Bluebirds and another four were used by chickadees or tufted titmice.
    Thanks for the link to the Sialis page link. It's great.

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